To be eligible under the New Jersey Family Leave Act, you need to work for a covered employer and meet minimum length-of-service and hours-worked requirements. A January 17, 2026 amendment lowers both sets of thresholds beginning July 17, 2026, so the NJFLA eligibility requirements that apply to you depend on when your leave begins. The rules below cover both windows.
Employer Size: Who Is a Covered Employer
Through July 16, 2026, the NJFLA applies to private employers with at least 30 employees working each day during 20 or more calendar workweeks in the current or prior calendar year.1Justia Law. New Jersey Revised Statutes Section 34-11B-3 – Definitions The count includes every worker on payroll, whether based in New Jersey or elsewhere. A company with offices in three states and 10 employees in each qualifies as a covered employer, and its New Jersey staff can use the law.
Starting July 17, 2026, the private-employer threshold drops to 15 or more employees.2New Jersey Office of the Attorney General. New Jersey Family Leave Act State and local government employees are covered regardless of agency size under both the current and amended law.1Justia Law. New Jersey Revised Statutes Section 34-11B-3 – Definitions
If your private employer falls under the applicable threshold, the NJFLA does not require it to hold your job during an extended absence. You may still have rights under the federal FMLA if the employer has 50 or more employees within 75 miles, but that is a separate law with its own eligibility rules.
Your Length of Service and Hours Worked
Working for a covered employer is only half of the test. You also have to meet personal service requirements before job protection attaches.
Through July 16, 2026
You must have been employed by your current employer for at least 12 months and worked at least 1,000 base hours during the 12 months immediately before your leave request.1Justia Law. New Jersey Revised Statutes Section 34-11B-3 – Definitions The 12 months of employment do not need to be consecutive, but the hours must fall within the most recent 12-month window.
Base hours include overtime. If you worked 900 regular hours plus 150 overtime hours, you clear the 1,000-hour threshold. Base hours cover all hours for which you receive compensation, including overtime pay and workers’ compensation time.3New Jersey Office of the Attorney General. New Jersey Family Leave Act Frequently Asked Questions The 1,000-hour mark is a hard cutoff, so tracking your hours matters if you’re anywhere near the line.
If you were laid off or furloughed during a state-declared emergency, up to 90 calendar days of that period counts as employment time, and your weekly base hours during the layoff are treated as matching your average weekly hours during the rest of the year.1Justia Law. New Jersey Revised Statutes Section 34-11B-3 – Definitions
Starting July 17, 2026
The amendment sharply lowers both service requirements. You will need three months of employment and 250 base hours worked in the preceding 12-month period.2New Jersey Office of the Attorney General. New Jersey Family Leave Act Many part-time and recently hired workers who had no access to NJFLA protection before will qualify once this change takes effect.
Which Family Members You Can Take Leave For
Eligibility also depends on who you are taking leave for, and New Jersey defines “family member” more broadly than most people expect. You can take NJFLA leave to care for a child, parent, parent-in-law, sibling, grandparent, grandchild, spouse, domestic partner, civil union partner, or any other individual related to you by blood.1Justia Law. New Jersey Revised Statutes Section 34-11B-3 – Definitions
Beyond blood relatives and legally recognized partnerships, the statute reaches further: you can take leave for someone with whom you have a close association equivalent to a family relationship.1Justia Law. New Jersey Revised Statutes Section 34-11B-3 – Definitions That covers situations where someone functions as family without a legal or biological tie, such as a lifelong friend who raised you or a person who shares your household and depends on you for care.
“Child” is also defined broadly. It includes biological, adopted, and foster children, stepchildren, legal wards, and children born through a gestational carrier arrangement with a valid written agreement.1Justia Law. New Jersey Revised Statutes Section 34-11B-3 – Definitions The federal FMLA is narrower, limiting covered relationships to children, parents, and spouses.
Qualifying Reasons for Leave
The NJFLA provides up to 12 weeks of job-protected leave within any 24-month period.4New Jersey Department of Law and Public Safety. New Jersey Family Leave Act – Section 34-11B-4 Your reason has to fit one of these categories:
- Bonding with a new child after birth, adoption, or foster care placement. The leave must begin within one year of the birth or placement.
- Caring for a family member with a serious health condition, meaning an illness, injury, or physical or mental condition requiring inpatient care in a hospital, hospice, or residential facility, or ongoing treatment by a health care provider. “Continuing treatment” generally requires incapacity for more than three consecutive days plus at least two provider visits or a prescribed ongoing treatment regimen.5New Jersey Department of Law and Public Safety. New Jersey Family Leave Act Regulations – Section 13-14-1.2
- Certain communicable disease situations, including when a family member’s school or care facility closes because of an epidemic, or when you need to care for a family member exposed to or trying to prevent the spread of a communicable disease.4New Jersey Department of Law and Public Safety. New Jersey Family Leave Act – Section 34-11B-4
The NJFLA does not cover your own medical condition. Leave for your own surgery, illness, or pregnancy-related disability is not an NJFLA event, and you would need to look to the federal FMLA for job protection during your own health event.3New Jersey Office of the Attorney General. New Jersey Family Leave Act Frequently Asked Questions
How NJFLA Eligibility Relates to Federal FMLA Eligibility
The two laws have separate eligibility tests, and qualifying for one does not mean you qualify for the other. The employer size, the covered family members, and the covered reasons differ. If you are eligible under both, leave that fits both laws counts against your entitlement under each at the same time, so you don’t get 12 weeks under each for a total of 24.3New Jersey Office of the Attorney General. New Jersey Family Leave Act Frequently Asked Questions
When only one law covers the reason, the leave draws down only that law’s bank. This matters most for new parents. A birth parent’s own recovery time is FMLA leave (the NJFLA doesn’t cover it), and NJFLA bonding leave can follow, giving up to 24 weeks of job-protected time when both laws apply.3New Jersey Office of the Attorney General. New Jersey Family Leave Act Frequently Asked Questions Leave to care for a sibling, grandparent, grandchild, parent-in-law, or domestic partner runs only against your NJFLA entitlement, since the FMLA doesn’t recognize those relationships.
One more boundary worth knowing: the NJFLA protects your job, but it does not by itself guarantee pay. New Jersey’s Family Leave Insurance program provides wage replacement during qualifying leave, and it has its own eligibility rules and application process separate from NJFLA job-protection eligibility.6State of New Jersey. Division of Temporary Disability and Family Leave Insurance Meeting the NJFLA test doesn’t automatically qualify you for FLI benefits, and vice versa.